Papers by Giorgio Chelidonio
"La Lessinia ieri oggi domani", 1989
In the second half of the 1980s, after the three-year period 1984-1986 dedicated to the education... more In the second half of the 1980s, after the three-year period 1984-1986 dedicated to the educational/popular Experimental Archaeology project (“Let’s relive the past”), I tried with several projects conducted in schools to combine the above mentioned orientation with environmental exploration projects, to unite some prehistoric sites of the Lessini Mountains (Verona) with exploratory itineraries that would allow us to place their paleo-environmental meanings. This new objective aimed to fill, at least in part, the limits of museum’s perception that inevitably decontextualizes the finds from their original environmental dimension. The itinerary between the sites of Passo Fittanze and Ponte di Veja, which had already revealed traces of both Epigravettian and Mousterian hunters/gatherers, was placed in this direction. Unfortunately, I had to note several times the lack of involvement of the institutions competent for the territory and for cultural areas. Nonetheless, I am still convinced that environmental itineraries can integrate museum and archaeo-experimental knowledge of Paleolithic traces, especially in mountainous areas.
Nella seconda metà degli anni ’80, dopo il triennio 1984-1986 dedicato al progetto di Archeologia Sperimentale didattico/divulgativa (“Riviviamo il Passato”), ho provato con diversi progetti condotti in ambito scolastico ad unire il suddetto orientamento con progetti di esplorazione ambientale che sapessero unire alcuni siti preistorici dei Monti Lessini (Verona) con itinerari esplorativi che permettere di collocarne le valenze paleo-ambientali. Questo nuovo obbiettivo si proponeva di colmare, almeno in parte, i limiti della percezione museale che, inevitabilmente, decontestualizza i reperti dalla loro originaria dimensione ambientale.
In questa direzione si collocava l’itinerario fra i siti di Passo Fittanze e di Ponte di Veja, che avevano già rivelato diffuse tracce di cacciatori-raccoglitori, sia Epigravettiani che Musteriani. Purtroppo ho dovuto più volte constatare l’assenza di coinvolgimento delle Istituzioni competenti per territorio e per ambiti culturali. Ciononostante, sono tuttora convinto che gli itinerari ambientali possano integrare la conoscenza, museale e archeo-sperimentale, delle tracce paleolitiche specie in ambiti montani.
“Padusa”, anno XI, n. 3, Rovigo., 2000
Abstract
In twenty-five years, we can measure … “a generation”: scrolling through this brief intr... more Abstract
In twenty-five years, we can measure … “a generation”: scrolling through this brief introduction to the exhibition “The great adventure of fire” (held at the Civic Archaeological Museum of Bergamo in 2000-2001) I measured how much time (and how much research and how many archaeo-novelties or, better, “paleo-novelties”) has passed. Today, the increasingly rapid and widespread online accessibility of scientific articles has pushed the “anthropic history of fire” back to the threshold of at least 1,000,000 years ago (traces of fire “collected and preserved” in the South African cave of Wonderwerk) (1). How much data should be added on its various phases hypothesized so far, for example:
- the fires of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (an Israeli site dated to about 780,000 years ago) on which some hominins roasted large fish (2);
- the torches with which, 176,000 years ago, a group of Neanderthals illuminated the French cave of Bruniquel (3) to compose, with 400 pieces of stalagmites, circles with probable symbolic functions.
Meanwhile, my reflections on the "great adventure of fire" continue with late-prehistoric and historical stages (4), the latter is now almost removed from collective memory.
1) https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.10372
2) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01910-z
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruniquel_Cave
4) https://www.academia.edu/111519242/A_Cerro_lecomuseo_delle_fol%C3%A8nde_focaie_
Breve aggiornamento
Su venticinque anni si misura …”una generazione” : scorrendo questa breve introduzione alla mostra “La grande avventura del fuoco” (tenutasi al Civico Museo Archeologico di Bergamo nel 2000-2001) ho “misurato” quanto tempo (e quanta ricerca e quante archeo-novità o, meglio, “paleo-novità”) è trascorso. Oggi, la sempre più rapida e diffusa accessibilità online di articoli scientifici ha fatto retrocedere la “storia antropica del fuoco” alla soglia di almeno 1.000.000 di anni fa (tracce di fuoco “raccolto e conservato” nella grotta sudafricana di Wonderwerk) (1).
Quanti dati bisognerebbe aggiungere sulle sue varie fasi finora ipotizzate, ad esempio:
- i fuochi di Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (un sito israeliano datato a 780.000 anni fa circa) su cui alcuni ominini arrostirono dei grossi pesci (2);
- le torce con cui, 176.000 anni fa, un gruppo di Neanderthal illuminò la grotta francese di Bruniquel (3) per comporvi, con 400 pezzi di stalagmiti, dei cerchi con probabili funzioni simboliche.
Intanto, le mie riflessioni sulla “grande avventura del fuoco” proseguono ancora con tappe tardo-preistoriche e storiche (4).
in “Giovane Montagna, rivista di vita alpina”, anno 92°, n. 2, Torino., 2006
Il manufatto di selce, con probabile origine dai Monti Lessini e funzioni di accenditore litico, ... more Il manufatto di selce, con probabile origine dai Monti Lessini e funzioni di accenditore litico, rinvenuto nella “cintura-marsupio” di Ötzi evoca una fitta rete di scambi lungo l’asta dell’Adige. Anche la polvere di pirite trovata sul frammento di fungo-esca (incluso nello stesso contenitore) non solo conferma un uso diffuso di quella tecnica accensiva, ma suggerisce anche l’esistenza di un’altra rete di approvvigionamento di noduli di pirite, la cui estensione andrebbe verificata, ad esempio, con potenziali affioramenti fino in Austria (es. a Dornbirn, a sud/ovest del Lago di Costanza). Inoltre, la presenza di un contenitore in corteccia di betulla rivela che si praticassero anche strategie accensive alternative, basate sul trasporto di braci, ben documentate in area alpina anche in tempi storici sub-attuali. I reperti accensivi di Ötzi e le loro relative tracce hanno aperto nuovi scenari di ricerca sulla storia del rapporto tra l’uomo preistorico e il fuoco.
Abstract
The flint artefact, probably originating from the Lessini Mountains (used as a lithic igniter), found in Ötzi’s “belt-pouch” evokes a dense network of exchanges along the Adige River. The pyrite powder found on the tinder mushroom fragment (contained in the same belt-pouch) only confirms the widespread use of that ignition technique but also suggests the existence of another supply network of pyrite nodules, the extent of which should be verified, for example, with potential outcrops as far away as Austria (e.g. in Dornbirn, south/west of Lake Constance). Furthermore, the presence of a birch bark container reveals that alternative ignition strategies were also practiced, based on the transport of embers, well documented in the Alpine area even in sub-present historical times. Ötzi’s ignition finds and their related traces have opened new research scenarios on the history of the relationship between prehistoric man and fire.
Quaderni di Archeologia del Veneto, 2000
Before the numerous and careful surveys carried out by L. Stocchiero in the 1980s, the Illasi Val... more Before the numerous and careful surveys carried out by L. Stocchiero in the 1980s, the Illasi Valley could have been defined as the “valley of forgotten prehistory”. From our first meeting (in 1988) and in the, unfortunately, short years that passed until his premature death (1992), the “mosaic” of his collections began to take shape, from the sites of the upper Vajo di Squaranto (Porcarina and San Giorgio - Chelidonio G., Sauro U., Stocchiero L., 1990-1991) to the eastern ridge of the Illasi Valley (Monte Precastio, Chelidonio G., Stocchiero L., 1991). I have the burden and honor of reporting his discoveries, even if I limited my studies to the Paleolithic sites he had identified. To continue the survey that L. Stocchiero had started, I can only hope for the emergence of a new generation of passionate archeo-researchers, whose potential presence, however, I have not yet perceived.
Prima dei numerosi e attenti survey effettuati da L. Stocchiero negli anni ’80 la Valle d’Illasi si sarebbe potuta definire “valle della preistoria dimenticata”. A partire dal nostro incontro (nel 1988) e nei, purtroppo, brevi anni che sono intercorsi fino alla sua prematura scomparsa (1992) il “mosaico” delle sue raccolte ha iniziato a delinearsi, dai siti dell’alto Vajo di Squaranto (Porcarina e San Giorgio - Chelidonio G., Sauro U., Stocchiero L., 1990-1991) alla dorsale orientale della Val d’Illasi (Monte Precastio, Chelidonio G., Stocchiero L., 1991). A me è rimasto l’onere e l’onore di dare notizia delle sue scoperte, pur limitandomi ai siti paleolitici che aveva individuato. Per proseguire nel survey che L. Stocchiero aveva avviato non mi resta che sperare nel manifestarsi di una nuova generazione di appassionati ricercatori, di cui finora, però,
non avverto la potenziale presenza.
"Metodi e pratica della cultura materiale. Produzione e consumo dei manufatti" - Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri - Bordighera, 2004
.
Annali Benacensi -Museo Cavriana vol. 12, pp. 51-62, 1999
"Athesia", vol. 2, pp. 47-102, 1988
Abstract
Re-proposing a text of mine that dates to almost 40 years ago is motivated by its object... more Abstract
Re-proposing a text of mine that dates to almost 40 years ago is motivated by its objectives declared in the title: presenting them at a time when typology prevailed in Italian studies dedicated to the analysis of prehistoric lithic artefacts, “flaking by experiments” was then truly a “novelty”.
I initially arrived in this project, by the truly stimulating meeting with Professor Mara Guerri (1): she convinced me that the lithic technology by experiments could have provided those interpretative bases that typology alone did not help to clarify. The second very important stimulus was given to me by contact, albeit only by letter, with the “legendary” Professor François Bordes who introduced me not only to his pioneering experiences started decades earlier (2) but also, in detail, to his studies on laminar techniques (3) that appeared “at the dawn” of the Upper Paleolithic.
In the following years I have worked hard to disseminate, often in school contexts and in a didactic manner, experimental lithic technology as a way of making understand the complexity of prehistoric artefacts, which often, decontextualized in exhibition contexts, risk to be perceived, for many, "incomprehensible stones" (4).
(1) https://www.iipp.it/e-scomparsa-la-prof-ssa-mara-guerri/
- CHELIDONIO G., FARELLO L., 1976: Appunti sulla tecnica di scheg¬giatura della selce e sua predeterminazione. in “Preisto¬ria Alpina”, vol.12, pp. 275-279, Trento.
http://www.academia.edu/3660785/Appunti_sulla_tecnica_di_scheggiatura_della_selce_e_sua_predeterminazione
(2) « Avec le préhistorien François Bordes, la taille du silex cesse d’être une simple prouesse distrayante et devient une démarche expérimentale porteuse de connaissances. »
https://www.inrap.fr/magazine/histoire-de-larcheologie/faire-parler-les-vestiges/la-taille-du-silex#undefined
(3) https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1970_num_67_4_4234https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1970_num_67_4_4234https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1970_num_67_4_4234
CHELIDONIO G.,1984: Appunti sulla predeterminazione nei nuclei da lame. La tecnica di Corbiac, in "Preistoria
Alpina”, vol. 20, pp. 343-364, Trento.
(4) CHELIDONIO G., 1995: Memorie litiche: sperimentazione e analisi progettuale, in "Le scienze della terra e l'archeometria" a cura di C. D'Amico e F. Finotti, Museo Miner.Università di Bologna-Museo Civico di Rovereto, pp. 69-72, Bologna.
"La Lessinia ieri oggi domani" , p.p. 81-88, 2024
Cà Lotrago is an unusual semi-flat area located on the eastern ridge of the Valpantena where the ... more Cà Lotrago is an unusual semi-flat area located on the eastern ridge of the Valpantena where the colluvial sediments from the overlying Monte Gazzo relief may have redeposited a significant thickness of clayey sediments; this potential stratigraphy was suggested, until a few decades ago, by the presence of a seasonal pool.
The site was reported (in 1959) for the presence of a lithic industry, made of non-vitreous Eocene flint outcropping locally: this series of heavily patinated lithic artefacts was typologically interpreted as “archaic” facies of the Lower Paleolithic, characterized by large “clactonian-like” flakes and a pair of amygdaloid bifaces.
A degree thesis (Univ. Ferrara, 1974) was discussed on this series of artefacts, confirming their archaic attribution. Another other relevant aspect is that several thousand lithic artefacts were surface were collected on top (and along the slopes) of the nearby Monte Gazzo: a relevant paper attributed (in 1980) these artefacts to at least two phases of the Middle Paleolithic, despite the presence of a small number of very patinated core-tools.
Our paper reports a new discovery, in Cà Lotrago area, of an amygdaloid, made of Eocene flint, which surfaces are intensely and deeply altered: its techno-morphological analysis suggests a level of archaism comparable to the most ancient Acheulean industries both in Italy (e.g. Notarchirico, level F, dated to 658 ± 6 ka BP) and in Europe (e.g. “Unit A” of the French site of “La Noira”, dated 665±55 ka BP).
In terms of techno-typological comparison, the couple of Acheulean bifaces found in the Veronese site of Lughezzano (1980), which have been geo-stratigraphically related with the alpine Mindel-Riss (1) corresponding to the Hoxnian interglacial, MIS 11, 424 - 374 ka BP), seem to have more elaborate symmetry and retouching, therefore evolutionarily more recent.
(1) corresponding to the Hoxnian interglacial, MIS 11, 424 - 374 ka BP.
Con l'archeologia sulle tracce del passato. La Piana Rotaliana dalla Preistoria all'età Romana. Progetto didattico, 2010
In my forty-year experience of teaching activities in schools as an archaeo-technician, I had ra... more In my forty-year experience of teaching activities in schools as an archaeo-technician, I had rarely the chance to read the synthesis published as it was perceived by the participating teachers.
For this peculiar value, I believe it is appropriate, after 14 years, to make this brief text available.
Nelle mie quarantennali esperienze di attività didattiche nelle scuole, in veste di archeo-tecnico, raramente ho visto pubblicato la sintesi percepita dagli insegnanti partecipanti.
Per questa particolare valenza ritengo opportuno, dopo 14 anni, renderne disponibile il testo.
World Archaeological Congress, 1987
Abstract
While tiding up my old reprints, I rediscovered this old and small contribution of mine ... more Abstract
While tiding up my old reprints, I rediscovered this old and small contribution of mine on Early Lower Palaeolithic in Italy. As far as I know, a printed copy of it was never mailed to me.
From then on, the studies on some of the mentioned sites (such as “Isernia la Pineta”) have been greatly developed and some others (very important, such as “Monte Poggiolo” and “Pirro Nord”) have been discovered and duly published. On the contrary, very small attention has been paid to Verona mountains’ lithic tools, typo-morphologically attributed to early Lower Paleolithic, such as some “chopping tools”, starting from the 1996 UISPP debate, can be defined as “core-tools” or, in the Lessini mountains’ case, “nodule tools”.
So I simply restored my original typewritten proof copy, adding some drawings that should have been inserted, along with a brief, recent bibliography.
Verona, 20.12.2014
"Annali Benacensi", Atti Conv. XIV Archeologia Benacense, n.12, Museo Archeologico di Cavriana(MN), pp. 51-62, , 1996
This old article of mine, which deals with late-prehistoric igniters in north-eastern Italy, aims... more This old article of mine, which deals with late-prehistoric igniters in north-eastern Italy, aims to highlight how, even at the end of the 20th century, the study of these peculiar types of siliceous igniters was still semi-forgotten compared to some European research already underway between 1872 and 1907.
Questo mio vecchio articolo, che tratta degli accenditori tardo-preistorici nell'Italia nord-orientale, si propone di evidenziare come, ancora alla fine del XX secolo, lo studio di questi particolari tipi di accenditori silicei fosse semi-dimenticato rispetto alcune ricerche europee iniziate già avviate fra il 1872 e il 1907.
Quaderni di Archeologia del Veneto, 1991
“Rediscovering”, after over 30 years, this paper dealing with the Paleolithic finds discovered in... more “Rediscovering”, after over 30 years, this paper dealing with the Paleolithic finds discovered in the 1990s by my friend Stocchiero highlights how the precious surface collections carried out by a passionate “non-specialist” have brought out the Paleolithic potential of the Illasi Valley, the largest and most complex geo-climatically among the Lessinia valleys, even if, until then, it was officially characterized by the absence of traces referable to the Middle Paleolithic.
“Riscoprire”, dopo oltre 30 anni, questo articolo sui reperti paleolitici scoperti negli anni '90 dall'amico Stocchiero evidenzia come le preziose raccolte di superficie effettuate da un appassionato “non specialista” abbiano fatto emergere le potenzialità paleolitiche della Valle d'Illasi, la più vasta e complessa geo-climaticamente tra le valli della Lessinia, anche se, fino ad allora, era ufficialmente caratterizzata dall'assenza di tracce riferibili al Paleolitico medio.
Selci "strane" e "futuro archeologico": falsi, simulazioni commerciali o sperimentazioni educative?
Experimental archaeology as a main support toward an "environmental" method of learning
Archeologia sperimentale e pedagogia: un convegno europeo al Museo di Neanderthal
"Notizie Archeologche Bergomensi", 1997
"Il fuoco. Mito e storia", 2023
“Quaderni di Archeologia del Veneto”, 2004
The identification of some small concentrations of lithic artefacts (attributable, on a techno-ty... more The identification of some small concentrations of lithic artefacts (attributable, on a techno-typological basis and different types of "patinas", to both Neanderthal and post-Paleolithic frequentations) in the hilly ridge above Verona and the river bends on which the center this urban originated, stimulates deductions on the patterns of widespread prehistoric attendance of surroundings of this peri-urban area. The coincidence of the sites with areas in which reduced coverage of residual red clays prevails, suggests elements of comparison with the peri-fluvial deposition of red clays even in significant thicknesses. As in the case of the stratigraphy found, both in the Quinzano quarries and in the excavations of the Eastern ring road (in lower Valpantena), this mirroring of reduced hilly sedimentary covers and significant valley accumulations of clayey sediments (originated by ancient pedogenetic phenomena and affected by imposing subsequent erosions), calls into question the intense anthropization of the ridges and the slopes, which probably already began in the early Neolithic, as documented in the Campagna di Lugo site (6th-5th millennium BC).
Annuario Storico della Valpolicella - Authors: J.Ned Woodall and R.W. Kirchen , 1999
Abstract
Survey and excavation (1996-1998), directed by J.N. Woodall (Wake Forest University), i... more Abstract
Survey and excavation (1996-1998), directed by J.N. Woodall (Wake Forest University), in the Monti Lessini revealed numerous small-scale gunflint production workshops. The ___location of these historical sites is related to the local geology and to land-use practices of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, as well as regional demographics and political events. The recovered artifacts indicate a distinctive type of debitage was produced which allows discrimination of gunflint refuse from prehistoric materials. On many of the sites the vitreous flint used is macroscopically identical to French gunflint material commonly identified in historic sites. Both introduction and translation of this paper were edited by Giorgio Chelidonio.
Costruzione ed analisi sperimentale di una lampada in pietra tipo Lascaux - La Mouthe
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Papers by Giorgio Chelidonio
Nella seconda metà degli anni ’80, dopo il triennio 1984-1986 dedicato al progetto di Archeologia Sperimentale didattico/divulgativa (“Riviviamo il Passato”), ho provato con diversi progetti condotti in ambito scolastico ad unire il suddetto orientamento con progetti di esplorazione ambientale che sapessero unire alcuni siti preistorici dei Monti Lessini (Verona) con itinerari esplorativi che permettere di collocarne le valenze paleo-ambientali. Questo nuovo obbiettivo si proponeva di colmare, almeno in parte, i limiti della percezione museale che, inevitabilmente, decontestualizza i reperti dalla loro originaria dimensione ambientale.
In questa direzione si collocava l’itinerario fra i siti di Passo Fittanze e di Ponte di Veja, che avevano già rivelato diffuse tracce di cacciatori-raccoglitori, sia Epigravettiani che Musteriani. Purtroppo ho dovuto più volte constatare l’assenza di coinvolgimento delle Istituzioni competenti per territorio e per ambiti culturali. Ciononostante, sono tuttora convinto che gli itinerari ambientali possano integrare la conoscenza, museale e archeo-sperimentale, delle tracce paleolitiche specie in ambiti montani.
In twenty-five years, we can measure … “a generation”: scrolling through this brief introduction to the exhibition “The great adventure of fire” (held at the Civic Archaeological Museum of Bergamo in 2000-2001) I measured how much time (and how much research and how many archaeo-novelties or, better, “paleo-novelties”) has passed. Today, the increasingly rapid and widespread online accessibility of scientific articles has pushed the “anthropic history of fire” back to the threshold of at least 1,000,000 years ago (traces of fire “collected and preserved” in the South African cave of Wonderwerk) (1). How much data should be added on its various phases hypothesized so far, for example:
- the fires of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (an Israeli site dated to about 780,000 years ago) on which some hominins roasted large fish (2);
- the torches with which, 176,000 years ago, a group of Neanderthals illuminated the French cave of Bruniquel (3) to compose, with 400 pieces of stalagmites, circles with probable symbolic functions.
Meanwhile, my reflections on the "great adventure of fire" continue with late-prehistoric and historical stages (4), the latter is now almost removed from collective memory.
1) https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.10372
2) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01910-z
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruniquel_Cave
4) https://www.academia.edu/111519242/A_Cerro_lecomuseo_delle_fol%C3%A8nde_focaie_
Breve aggiornamento
Su venticinque anni si misura …”una generazione” : scorrendo questa breve introduzione alla mostra “La grande avventura del fuoco” (tenutasi al Civico Museo Archeologico di Bergamo nel 2000-2001) ho “misurato” quanto tempo (e quanta ricerca e quante archeo-novità o, meglio, “paleo-novità”) è trascorso. Oggi, la sempre più rapida e diffusa accessibilità online di articoli scientifici ha fatto retrocedere la “storia antropica del fuoco” alla soglia di almeno 1.000.000 di anni fa (tracce di fuoco “raccolto e conservato” nella grotta sudafricana di Wonderwerk) (1).
Quanti dati bisognerebbe aggiungere sulle sue varie fasi finora ipotizzate, ad esempio:
- i fuochi di Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (un sito israeliano datato a 780.000 anni fa circa) su cui alcuni ominini arrostirono dei grossi pesci (2);
- le torce con cui, 176.000 anni fa, un gruppo di Neanderthal illuminò la grotta francese di Bruniquel (3) per comporvi, con 400 pezzi di stalagmiti, dei cerchi con probabili funzioni simboliche.
Intanto, le mie riflessioni sulla “grande avventura del fuoco” proseguono ancora con tappe tardo-preistoriche e storiche (4).
Abstract
The flint artefact, probably originating from the Lessini Mountains (used as a lithic igniter), found in Ötzi’s “belt-pouch” evokes a dense network of exchanges along the Adige River. The pyrite powder found on the tinder mushroom fragment (contained in the same belt-pouch) only confirms the widespread use of that ignition technique but also suggests the existence of another supply network of pyrite nodules, the extent of which should be verified, for example, with potential outcrops as far away as Austria (e.g. in Dornbirn, south/west of Lake Constance). Furthermore, the presence of a birch bark container reveals that alternative ignition strategies were also practiced, based on the transport of embers, well documented in the Alpine area even in sub-present historical times. Ötzi’s ignition finds and their related traces have opened new research scenarios on the history of the relationship between prehistoric man and fire.
Prima dei numerosi e attenti survey effettuati da L. Stocchiero negli anni ’80 la Valle d’Illasi si sarebbe potuta definire “valle della preistoria dimenticata”. A partire dal nostro incontro (nel 1988) e nei, purtroppo, brevi anni che sono intercorsi fino alla sua prematura scomparsa (1992) il “mosaico” delle sue raccolte ha iniziato a delinearsi, dai siti dell’alto Vajo di Squaranto (Porcarina e San Giorgio - Chelidonio G., Sauro U., Stocchiero L., 1990-1991) alla dorsale orientale della Val d’Illasi (Monte Precastio, Chelidonio G., Stocchiero L., 1991). A me è rimasto l’onere e l’onore di dare notizia delle sue scoperte, pur limitandomi ai siti paleolitici che aveva individuato. Per proseguire nel survey che L. Stocchiero aveva avviato non mi resta che sperare nel manifestarsi di una nuova generazione di appassionati ricercatori, di cui finora, però,
non avverto la potenziale presenza.
Re-proposing a text of mine that dates to almost 40 years ago is motivated by its objectives declared in the title: presenting them at a time when typology prevailed in Italian studies dedicated to the analysis of prehistoric lithic artefacts, “flaking by experiments” was then truly a “novelty”.
I initially arrived in this project, by the truly stimulating meeting with Professor Mara Guerri (1): she convinced me that the lithic technology by experiments could have provided those interpretative bases that typology alone did not help to clarify. The second very important stimulus was given to me by contact, albeit only by letter, with the “legendary” Professor François Bordes who introduced me not only to his pioneering experiences started decades earlier (2) but also, in detail, to his studies on laminar techniques (3) that appeared “at the dawn” of the Upper Paleolithic.
In the following years I have worked hard to disseminate, often in school contexts and in a didactic manner, experimental lithic technology as a way of making understand the complexity of prehistoric artefacts, which often, decontextualized in exhibition contexts, risk to be perceived, for many, "incomprehensible stones" (4).
(1) https://www.iipp.it/e-scomparsa-la-prof-ssa-mara-guerri/
- CHELIDONIO G., FARELLO L., 1976: Appunti sulla tecnica di scheg¬giatura della selce e sua predeterminazione. in “Preisto¬ria Alpina”, vol.12, pp. 275-279, Trento.
http://www.academia.edu/3660785/Appunti_sulla_tecnica_di_scheggiatura_della_selce_e_sua_predeterminazione
(2) « Avec le préhistorien François Bordes, la taille du silex cesse d’être une simple prouesse distrayante et devient une démarche expérimentale porteuse de connaissances. »
https://www.inrap.fr/magazine/histoire-de-larcheologie/faire-parler-les-vestiges/la-taille-du-silex#undefined
(3) https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1970_num_67_4_4234https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1970_num_67_4_4234https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1970_num_67_4_4234
CHELIDONIO G.,1984: Appunti sulla predeterminazione nei nuclei da lame. La tecnica di Corbiac, in "Preistoria
Alpina”, vol. 20, pp. 343-364, Trento.
(4) CHELIDONIO G., 1995: Memorie litiche: sperimentazione e analisi progettuale, in "Le scienze della terra e l'archeometria" a cura di C. D'Amico e F. Finotti, Museo Miner.Università di Bologna-Museo Civico di Rovereto, pp. 69-72, Bologna.
The site was reported (in 1959) for the presence of a lithic industry, made of non-vitreous Eocene flint outcropping locally: this series of heavily patinated lithic artefacts was typologically interpreted as “archaic” facies of the Lower Paleolithic, characterized by large “clactonian-like” flakes and a pair of amygdaloid bifaces.
A degree thesis (Univ. Ferrara, 1974) was discussed on this series of artefacts, confirming their archaic attribution. Another other relevant aspect is that several thousand lithic artefacts were surface were collected on top (and along the slopes) of the nearby Monte Gazzo: a relevant paper attributed (in 1980) these artefacts to at least two phases of the Middle Paleolithic, despite the presence of a small number of very patinated core-tools.
Our paper reports a new discovery, in Cà Lotrago area, of an amygdaloid, made of Eocene flint, which surfaces are intensely and deeply altered: its techno-morphological analysis suggests a level of archaism comparable to the most ancient Acheulean industries both in Italy (e.g. Notarchirico, level F, dated to 658 ± 6 ka BP) and in Europe (e.g. “Unit A” of the French site of “La Noira”, dated 665±55 ka BP).
In terms of techno-typological comparison, the couple of Acheulean bifaces found in the Veronese site of Lughezzano (1980), which have been geo-stratigraphically related with the alpine Mindel-Riss (1) corresponding to the Hoxnian interglacial, MIS 11, 424 - 374 ka BP), seem to have more elaborate symmetry and retouching, therefore evolutionarily more recent.
(1) corresponding to the Hoxnian interglacial, MIS 11, 424 - 374 ka BP.
For this peculiar value, I believe it is appropriate, after 14 years, to make this brief text available.
Nelle mie quarantennali esperienze di attività didattiche nelle scuole, in veste di archeo-tecnico, raramente ho visto pubblicato la sintesi percepita dagli insegnanti partecipanti.
Per questa particolare valenza ritengo opportuno, dopo 14 anni, renderne disponibile il testo.
While tiding up my old reprints, I rediscovered this old and small contribution of mine on Early Lower Palaeolithic in Italy. As far as I know, a printed copy of it was never mailed to me.
From then on, the studies on some of the mentioned sites (such as “Isernia la Pineta”) have been greatly developed and some others (very important, such as “Monte Poggiolo” and “Pirro Nord”) have been discovered and duly published. On the contrary, very small attention has been paid to Verona mountains’ lithic tools, typo-morphologically attributed to early Lower Paleolithic, such as some “chopping tools”, starting from the 1996 UISPP debate, can be defined as “core-tools” or, in the Lessini mountains’ case, “nodule tools”.
So I simply restored my original typewritten proof copy, adding some drawings that should have been inserted, along with a brief, recent bibliography.
Verona, 20.12.2014
Questo mio vecchio articolo, che tratta degli accenditori tardo-preistorici nell'Italia nord-orientale, si propone di evidenziare come, ancora alla fine del XX secolo, lo studio di questi particolari tipi di accenditori silicei fosse semi-dimenticato rispetto alcune ricerche europee iniziate già avviate fra il 1872 e il 1907.
“Riscoprire”, dopo oltre 30 anni, questo articolo sui reperti paleolitici scoperti negli anni '90 dall'amico Stocchiero evidenzia come le preziose raccolte di superficie effettuate da un appassionato “non specialista” abbiano fatto emergere le potenzialità paleolitiche della Valle d'Illasi, la più vasta e complessa geo-climaticamente tra le valli della Lessinia, anche se, fino ad allora, era ufficialmente caratterizzata dall'assenza di tracce riferibili al Paleolitico medio.
Survey and excavation (1996-1998), directed by J.N. Woodall (Wake Forest University), in the Monti Lessini revealed numerous small-scale gunflint production workshops. The ___location of these historical sites is related to the local geology and to land-use practices of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, as well as regional demographics and political events. The recovered artifacts indicate a distinctive type of debitage was produced which allows discrimination of gunflint refuse from prehistoric materials. On many of the sites the vitreous flint used is macroscopically identical to French gunflint material commonly identified in historic sites. Both introduction and translation of this paper were edited by Giorgio Chelidonio.
Nella seconda metà degli anni ’80, dopo il triennio 1984-1986 dedicato al progetto di Archeologia Sperimentale didattico/divulgativa (“Riviviamo il Passato”), ho provato con diversi progetti condotti in ambito scolastico ad unire il suddetto orientamento con progetti di esplorazione ambientale che sapessero unire alcuni siti preistorici dei Monti Lessini (Verona) con itinerari esplorativi che permettere di collocarne le valenze paleo-ambientali. Questo nuovo obbiettivo si proponeva di colmare, almeno in parte, i limiti della percezione museale che, inevitabilmente, decontestualizza i reperti dalla loro originaria dimensione ambientale.
In questa direzione si collocava l’itinerario fra i siti di Passo Fittanze e di Ponte di Veja, che avevano già rivelato diffuse tracce di cacciatori-raccoglitori, sia Epigravettiani che Musteriani. Purtroppo ho dovuto più volte constatare l’assenza di coinvolgimento delle Istituzioni competenti per territorio e per ambiti culturali. Ciononostante, sono tuttora convinto che gli itinerari ambientali possano integrare la conoscenza, museale e archeo-sperimentale, delle tracce paleolitiche specie in ambiti montani.
In twenty-five years, we can measure … “a generation”: scrolling through this brief introduction to the exhibition “The great adventure of fire” (held at the Civic Archaeological Museum of Bergamo in 2000-2001) I measured how much time (and how much research and how many archaeo-novelties or, better, “paleo-novelties”) has passed. Today, the increasingly rapid and widespread online accessibility of scientific articles has pushed the “anthropic history of fire” back to the threshold of at least 1,000,000 years ago (traces of fire “collected and preserved” in the South African cave of Wonderwerk) (1). How much data should be added on its various phases hypothesized so far, for example:
- the fires of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (an Israeli site dated to about 780,000 years ago) on which some hominins roasted large fish (2);
- the torches with which, 176,000 years ago, a group of Neanderthals illuminated the French cave of Bruniquel (3) to compose, with 400 pieces of stalagmites, circles with probable symbolic functions.
Meanwhile, my reflections on the "great adventure of fire" continue with late-prehistoric and historical stages (4), the latter is now almost removed from collective memory.
1) https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.10372
2) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01910-z
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruniquel_Cave
4) https://www.academia.edu/111519242/A_Cerro_lecomuseo_delle_fol%C3%A8nde_focaie_
Breve aggiornamento
Su venticinque anni si misura …”una generazione” : scorrendo questa breve introduzione alla mostra “La grande avventura del fuoco” (tenutasi al Civico Museo Archeologico di Bergamo nel 2000-2001) ho “misurato” quanto tempo (e quanta ricerca e quante archeo-novità o, meglio, “paleo-novità”) è trascorso. Oggi, la sempre più rapida e diffusa accessibilità online di articoli scientifici ha fatto retrocedere la “storia antropica del fuoco” alla soglia di almeno 1.000.000 di anni fa (tracce di fuoco “raccolto e conservato” nella grotta sudafricana di Wonderwerk) (1).
Quanti dati bisognerebbe aggiungere sulle sue varie fasi finora ipotizzate, ad esempio:
- i fuochi di Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (un sito israeliano datato a 780.000 anni fa circa) su cui alcuni ominini arrostirono dei grossi pesci (2);
- le torce con cui, 176.000 anni fa, un gruppo di Neanderthal illuminò la grotta francese di Bruniquel (3) per comporvi, con 400 pezzi di stalagmiti, dei cerchi con probabili funzioni simboliche.
Intanto, le mie riflessioni sulla “grande avventura del fuoco” proseguono ancora con tappe tardo-preistoriche e storiche (4).
Abstract
The flint artefact, probably originating from the Lessini Mountains (used as a lithic igniter), found in Ötzi’s “belt-pouch” evokes a dense network of exchanges along the Adige River. The pyrite powder found on the tinder mushroom fragment (contained in the same belt-pouch) only confirms the widespread use of that ignition technique but also suggests the existence of another supply network of pyrite nodules, the extent of which should be verified, for example, with potential outcrops as far away as Austria (e.g. in Dornbirn, south/west of Lake Constance). Furthermore, the presence of a birch bark container reveals that alternative ignition strategies were also practiced, based on the transport of embers, well documented in the Alpine area even in sub-present historical times. Ötzi’s ignition finds and their related traces have opened new research scenarios on the history of the relationship between prehistoric man and fire.
Prima dei numerosi e attenti survey effettuati da L. Stocchiero negli anni ’80 la Valle d’Illasi si sarebbe potuta definire “valle della preistoria dimenticata”. A partire dal nostro incontro (nel 1988) e nei, purtroppo, brevi anni che sono intercorsi fino alla sua prematura scomparsa (1992) il “mosaico” delle sue raccolte ha iniziato a delinearsi, dai siti dell’alto Vajo di Squaranto (Porcarina e San Giorgio - Chelidonio G., Sauro U., Stocchiero L., 1990-1991) alla dorsale orientale della Val d’Illasi (Monte Precastio, Chelidonio G., Stocchiero L., 1991). A me è rimasto l’onere e l’onore di dare notizia delle sue scoperte, pur limitandomi ai siti paleolitici che aveva individuato. Per proseguire nel survey che L. Stocchiero aveva avviato non mi resta che sperare nel manifestarsi di una nuova generazione di appassionati ricercatori, di cui finora, però,
non avverto la potenziale presenza.
Re-proposing a text of mine that dates to almost 40 years ago is motivated by its objectives declared in the title: presenting them at a time when typology prevailed in Italian studies dedicated to the analysis of prehistoric lithic artefacts, “flaking by experiments” was then truly a “novelty”.
I initially arrived in this project, by the truly stimulating meeting with Professor Mara Guerri (1): she convinced me that the lithic technology by experiments could have provided those interpretative bases that typology alone did not help to clarify. The second very important stimulus was given to me by contact, albeit only by letter, with the “legendary” Professor François Bordes who introduced me not only to his pioneering experiences started decades earlier (2) but also, in detail, to his studies on laminar techniques (3) that appeared “at the dawn” of the Upper Paleolithic.
In the following years I have worked hard to disseminate, often in school contexts and in a didactic manner, experimental lithic technology as a way of making understand the complexity of prehistoric artefacts, which often, decontextualized in exhibition contexts, risk to be perceived, for many, "incomprehensible stones" (4).
(1) https://www.iipp.it/e-scomparsa-la-prof-ssa-mara-guerri/
- CHELIDONIO G., FARELLO L., 1976: Appunti sulla tecnica di scheg¬giatura della selce e sua predeterminazione. in “Preisto¬ria Alpina”, vol.12, pp. 275-279, Trento.
http://www.academia.edu/3660785/Appunti_sulla_tecnica_di_scheggiatura_della_selce_e_sua_predeterminazione
(2) « Avec le préhistorien François Bordes, la taille du silex cesse d’être une simple prouesse distrayante et devient une démarche expérimentale porteuse de connaissances. »
https://www.inrap.fr/magazine/histoire-de-larcheologie/faire-parler-les-vestiges/la-taille-du-silex#undefined
(3) https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1970_num_67_4_4234https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1970_num_67_4_4234https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_1970_num_67_4_4234
CHELIDONIO G.,1984: Appunti sulla predeterminazione nei nuclei da lame. La tecnica di Corbiac, in "Preistoria
Alpina”, vol. 20, pp. 343-364, Trento.
(4) CHELIDONIO G., 1995: Memorie litiche: sperimentazione e analisi progettuale, in "Le scienze della terra e l'archeometria" a cura di C. D'Amico e F. Finotti, Museo Miner.Università di Bologna-Museo Civico di Rovereto, pp. 69-72, Bologna.
The site was reported (in 1959) for the presence of a lithic industry, made of non-vitreous Eocene flint outcropping locally: this series of heavily patinated lithic artefacts was typologically interpreted as “archaic” facies of the Lower Paleolithic, characterized by large “clactonian-like” flakes and a pair of amygdaloid bifaces.
A degree thesis (Univ. Ferrara, 1974) was discussed on this series of artefacts, confirming their archaic attribution. Another other relevant aspect is that several thousand lithic artefacts were surface were collected on top (and along the slopes) of the nearby Monte Gazzo: a relevant paper attributed (in 1980) these artefacts to at least two phases of the Middle Paleolithic, despite the presence of a small number of very patinated core-tools.
Our paper reports a new discovery, in Cà Lotrago area, of an amygdaloid, made of Eocene flint, which surfaces are intensely and deeply altered: its techno-morphological analysis suggests a level of archaism comparable to the most ancient Acheulean industries both in Italy (e.g. Notarchirico, level F, dated to 658 ± 6 ka BP) and in Europe (e.g. “Unit A” of the French site of “La Noira”, dated 665±55 ka BP).
In terms of techno-typological comparison, the couple of Acheulean bifaces found in the Veronese site of Lughezzano (1980), which have been geo-stratigraphically related with the alpine Mindel-Riss (1) corresponding to the Hoxnian interglacial, MIS 11, 424 - 374 ka BP), seem to have more elaborate symmetry and retouching, therefore evolutionarily more recent.
(1) corresponding to the Hoxnian interglacial, MIS 11, 424 - 374 ka BP.
For this peculiar value, I believe it is appropriate, after 14 years, to make this brief text available.
Nelle mie quarantennali esperienze di attività didattiche nelle scuole, in veste di archeo-tecnico, raramente ho visto pubblicato la sintesi percepita dagli insegnanti partecipanti.
Per questa particolare valenza ritengo opportuno, dopo 14 anni, renderne disponibile il testo.
While tiding up my old reprints, I rediscovered this old and small contribution of mine on Early Lower Palaeolithic in Italy. As far as I know, a printed copy of it was never mailed to me.
From then on, the studies on some of the mentioned sites (such as “Isernia la Pineta”) have been greatly developed and some others (very important, such as “Monte Poggiolo” and “Pirro Nord”) have been discovered and duly published. On the contrary, very small attention has been paid to Verona mountains’ lithic tools, typo-morphologically attributed to early Lower Paleolithic, such as some “chopping tools”, starting from the 1996 UISPP debate, can be defined as “core-tools” or, in the Lessini mountains’ case, “nodule tools”.
So I simply restored my original typewritten proof copy, adding some drawings that should have been inserted, along with a brief, recent bibliography.
Verona, 20.12.2014
Questo mio vecchio articolo, che tratta degli accenditori tardo-preistorici nell'Italia nord-orientale, si propone di evidenziare come, ancora alla fine del XX secolo, lo studio di questi particolari tipi di accenditori silicei fosse semi-dimenticato rispetto alcune ricerche europee iniziate già avviate fra il 1872 e il 1907.
“Riscoprire”, dopo oltre 30 anni, questo articolo sui reperti paleolitici scoperti negli anni '90 dall'amico Stocchiero evidenzia come le preziose raccolte di superficie effettuate da un appassionato “non specialista” abbiano fatto emergere le potenzialità paleolitiche della Valle d'Illasi, la più vasta e complessa geo-climaticamente tra le valli della Lessinia, anche se, fino ad allora, era ufficialmente caratterizzata dall'assenza di tracce riferibili al Paleolitico medio.
Survey and excavation (1996-1998), directed by J.N. Woodall (Wake Forest University), in the Monti Lessini revealed numerous small-scale gunflint production workshops. The ___location of these historical sites is related to the local geology and to land-use practices of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, as well as regional demographics and political events. The recovered artifacts indicate a distinctive type of debitage was produced which allows discrimination of gunflint refuse from prehistoric materials. On many of the sites the vitreous flint used is macroscopically identical to French gunflint material commonly identified in historic sites. Both introduction and translation of this paper were edited by Giorgio Chelidonio.
(1) http://www.arpa.veneto.it/educazione_sostenibilita/htm/regionale_infea.asp
(2) http://www.italianostravr.it/
The present contribution discussed the reasons to promote di Monte Baldo area in form of ecomuseum’ units network.
(1) http://www.arpa.veneto.it/educazione_sostenibilita/htm/regionale_infea.asp
(2) http://www.italianostravr.it/
The present contribution dealt with the Monte Baldo geological landscape and it has been used as basic document to a didactic itinerary within the Valfredda alm area (3), situated at 1300 meters above sea level on the eastern Monte Baldo slopes.
(1) http://www.arpa.veneto.it/educazione_sostenibilita/htm/regionale_infea.asp
(2) http://www.italianostravr.it/
(3) http://www.baldoinrete.eu/lamalgavalfreddacrocetta/
The present contribution, held in form of didactic itinerary including archaeo-experiments, dealt with the Neanderthal traces dating to a non-glacial period (perhaps from 124 to 119 ka/MIS 5e) surface collected in different areas of the Monte Baldo, situated over 1000 meters above sea level
(1) http://www.arpa.veneto.it/educazione_sostenibilita/htm/regionale_infea.asp
(2) http://www.italianostravr.it/
Abstract
The so called “Via Cara” is an historical transhumance road already cited in a document dated 1589, which connects the post-glacial gravels of the low Illasi valley (100 meters AMSL) with the medieval (and still current) alpine meadows of San Giorgio (1500 meters AMSL), along a 33 kilometers’ track, rich in diversified sceneries and traces spanning at least through the last 100.000 years’ timeline. This anthropic environmental mosaic includes transhumance’ traditions, lost castles (i.e. the one named “San Leonardo in Castro” mentioned in XII century’s document) and Romanesque hermitages, but also longobard toponyms (such as Guala, Guaite), Bronze age settlements (Dosso Folesani) as well as small, vanished seasonal “lakes” where Neanderthals and Epigravettian hunters used to camp seasonally. Moreover, plenty of gunflints’ workshop traces are scattered along the middle part of this dorsal ridge (various sites: Centro and San Moro), as the XII century toponym “Salìne” (meaning, in Venetian, flints to be used with the so called “strike-a-light”) suggests. Connecting all these historical, archaeological and geological sceneries, so far mostly unknown, could develop an intangible but real cultural resource net.